title: Diagnostic value of lactate levels in acute appendicitis.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To assess the value of lactate measurements in addition to standard diagnostic measurement of white blood cell count (WBC) and C-reactive protein (CRP) in the accuracy of preoperative acute appendicitis (AA) diagnosis.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of thirty-six consecutive patients with histopathologically confirmed acute appendicitis were retrospectively included in the study. Fifteen volunteers were included as control group. Patient characteristics, preoperative ultrasonography (US) and laboratory assessment including WBC, C-reactive protein (CRP) and lactate values were collected. Receiver Operator Characterstics (ROC) curves for discriminant values and sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values (PPV,NPV) were calculated.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The male/female ratio of groups 1 and 2 were 25/11 and 9/6 respectively. Mean age: 34.13 +/- 9.6 years. Area under ROC values for lactate were found significant and discriminant value was found to be 8 mg/dl. Specificity, sensitivity, PPV and NPV calculated for lactate were as follows: 53%, 80%, 77% and 57%.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Increased lactate levels as well as other inflammatory parameters should be considered as a diagnostic parameter in diagnosis of AA.
authors.affiliation: Department of Emergency Medicine, Ankara Ataturk Training and Research Hospital, Ankara, Turkey.
authors.forename: Havva Sahin
authors.initials: HS
authors.lastname: Kavakli
authors.forename: Neriman Defne
authors.initials: ND
authors.lastname: Altintas
authors.forename: Yunsur
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Cevik
authors.forename: Sinan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Becel
authors.forename: Fatih
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Tanriverdi
mesh_terms: D000208:Acute Disease; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001064:Appendicitis / Q000097:blood* / Q000175:diagnosis*; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000097:blood; D002097:C-Reactive Protein / Q000032:analysis*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D019344:Lactic Acid / Q000097:blood*; D007958:Leukocyte Count; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D012372:ROC Curve; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D017678:Sex Distribution; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; D019344:Lactic Acid; D002097:C-Reactive Protein